Driving Fees For Beaches Will Stay Put

The Volusia Council Wants More Facts Before It Decides Whether To Raise The Cost For Visitors.

January 23, 2004|By Ludmilla Lelis, Sentinel Staff Writer

DELAND -- Hesitant to raise the beach-driving fees for out-of-towners, the Volusia County Council opted for the choice that most governments take on questionable issues.

The council Thursday asked for more study.

That delay means that visitors will continue to pay $5 a day to drive their cars, trucks or sport utility vehicles onto beaches in Volusia, one of the few places where beach driving is still allowed.

County Council members asked for more information on whether it would be worth charging noncounty residents $10 a day, an increase of $5, to drive and park on the beaches. They wanted to better understand who is actually paying the beach tolls -- county residents or visitors. A couple of council members said they didn't favor any toll increase regardless.

Beach driving, a tradition that helped give birth to stock-car racing and has made Daytona Beach famous, is allowed on 15 miles of Volusia's 47-mile coastline. Tolls are charged from February through November.

Hoping to refine the county's beach-management plan, Volusia officials are studying what changes, if any, are necessary on beach driving.

A beach-policy advisory board appointed by the County Council released a report earlier this month recommending fee increases for nonresidents, including raising the price of annual beach-driving passes from $40 to $50. Volusia residents would continue to pay $20 for the passes.

Although the County Council set a goal in January 2003 to have a "car-free beach by 2010," the advisory board recommended that beach driving should continue, especially since Volusia doesn't have enough off-beach parking to accommodate all the beachgoers.

However, Daytona Beach attorney Glenn Storch, who chairs the advisory board, said that a potential fee increase could help pay for more off-beach parking. One study found that between $800,000 and $1 million could be raised for off-beach parking.

The board also recommended a $1-per-hour fee for the off-beach parking already available, but the County Council also held off on approving that change.

Council member Bill Long offered one suggestion to potentially get more off-beach parking: converting some rarely used beach ramps to provide parking spaces.

John Harper, with Volusia County Leisure Services, said there are 42 beach ramps, but only 15 to 17 ramps are regularly open to the public and some of the closed ramps are never used by EVAC ambulances or the Beach Patrol, which need emergency access to the beach.

Some of the unused beach ramps could also be rebuilt with sidewalks to make it easier and safer for nearby families to walk onto the beach, Storch said.